No words really. Bitter Sweet.

antonb said:

No words really. Bitter Sweet.

Depite the bittersweetness of it, I rather this than his music be ignored completely.

So proud that Prince was the top selling artist of 2016. It was bittersweet though. Sure do miss him.

So desperately sad that it's taken his death for a resurgence to happen...I hope his legacy continues and more music comes out to be relished by all and sundry: Prince deserves nothing less than that.

Dibblekins said:

So desperately sad that it's taken his death for a resurgence to happen...I hope his legacy continues and more music comes out to be relished by all and sundry: Prince deserves nothing less than that.

Well said.

we all shouldnt rest until he is recognized like we do.. ..by all

The man controlled his catalog and in the end, it was a successful move for him even if it pissed off fans. He was right on that one.

twinnies said:

twinnies said:

Dibblekins said:

So desperately sad that it's taken his death for a resurgence to happen...I hope his legacy continues and more music comes out to be relished by all and sundry: Prince deserves nothing less than that.

Well said.

^^^THIS^^^

The numbers shows how much it pays off to release a lot of records (and of course that these records were awesome ). A big back catalogue allows new fans who get hooked to explore, especially with an artist as diverse as Prince, thus buying more and more of the old records

So hard work over the years has positve long-term benefits - I try to teach my kids this approach to life

jdcxc said:

Only in the USA as it's Nielson. Worldwide though? any data on that? It's not a competition but I'd like to know Bowie's sales this past year Vs Prince.

antonb said:

No words really. Bitter Sweet.

2020 said:

rogifan said:

This is very cool but how much do these numbers really mean anymore when so many people are renting music these days?

Rogifan,

I think that Prince being the best-selling artist of 2016 is very significant. The sales numbers reflect that he is a giant in the history of 20th and 21st century popular music. In the last 10 years, the only other artist whose death has caused such an increase in sales would be Michael Jackson. Whitney Houston's death also caused a big increase in sales of her music, but I'm pretty sure that Prince's estate has made more money in the first 8 months after his death than Whitney's estate made the first 8 months after death. The reason why Prince's estate has (probably) made more money than Whitney's during the first 8 months is because Prince wrote almost all of his songs while Whitney primarily sang songs that other people wrote.

--

The estate needs to release new material. It would also be a good idea to allow Prince's music to be included in films and on soundtracks. This will help to generate revenue and to keep his music relevant and expose more people to his music.

--

As for people "renting" music, yes, this is definitely an issue. However, vinyl sales continue to increase (http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/news/ct-evr-vinyl-records-resurge-tl-0105-20170103-story.html).

Marrk said:

Prince must be smiling in heaven

.

"Nielsen’s report notes that he was the only artist to sell more than 1 million digital and physical albums during the year." -> When I think of all this bashing and moaning about Princes so-called low sales with the last few albums No excuse 4 haters, it's 2016 not 1996!

NorthC said:

jdcxc said:

Hopefully the family gets some smart people who care about Prince to do some creative marketing with his vault material. I'm tired of all the business focus on his casual fickle pop fanbase.

Yes! If we want Prince to keep selling records from 2017 onwards, we need some live/vault albums, not just the same old hits over and over again. There's still Hendrix and Zappa albums coming out. That's what's needed to make sure the interest in Prince won't fade away in the coming years. [Edited 1/6/17 1:27am]

Personally I think Tyka will keep the music alive and do everything in her power to release the music in the vault.

rogifan said:

Marrk said:

Only in the USA as it's Nielson. Worldwide though? any data on that? It's not a competition but I'd like to know Bowie's sales this past year Vs Prince.

It would be interesting to know. Although I would imagine Prince would still top Bowie worlwide.